About the Program

• The Program Overview:
   
  Information literacy enhances the pursuit of knowledge at Georgia Southern University by preparing students to think critically and use information for their academic, professional and personal lives. Information literate individuals recognize the need for information, locate it using a variety of media and technologies, and evaluate information in order to use it effectively. Information literate students have the flexibility to take these skills from their formal education and use them throughout life as citizens and professionals and as a means toward continued learning. The information literacy program supports the mission of the Henderson library by teaching and supporting skills necessary for lifelong learning.
  
   
• The Mission Statement:
   
  The Library promotes information literacy by educating students to understand the organization of knowledge, to gather data of all kinds using both print and information technology resources and to evaluate the relevance and authority of information in all its forms. We embrace the Association of College and Research Libraries’ Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education and that association’s definition of information literacy: “…a set of abilities requiring individuals to ‘recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information.” ( http://www.acrl.org/ala/acrl/acrlstandards/informationliteracycompetency.htm)

  Program Goals:

  • Foster collaborative efforts between the library faculty and classroom faculty to create and integrate information literacy across the curriculum.
  • Design effective library instruction courses that will facilitate the achievement of desired competencies of information literacy.
  • Employ a survey instrument based on the ACRL Standards that assesses baseline information literacy levels of Georgia Southern students.
   
• Activities:
  The Henderson Library promotes Information Literacy by participating in the following activities:
  • Working in collaboration with classroom faculty to integrate information literacy across the curriculum.
  • Creating and conducting customized information literacy workshops.
  • Providing one on one consultations with students and faculty.
  • Educating patrons at the Reference desk.  
  • Co-sponsoring the annual Georgia Conference on Information Literacy.
     
• Library Outreach and Faculty Liaisons:
   

All library faculty members in the Information Services Department provide information literacy instruction. Please contact the Information Services Librarians for more information. Click here to access short, biographical information about the librarians and their respective areas of subject specialization.

To request an instructional session or to request the use of the library classroom, submit an online request or call the Reference desk at 478-5645.

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Last updated 04/07/2008.